Indiana downs Indiana State 24-17 to end nine-game losing streak

Indiana State was alive until the game’s last play, but wide receiver Cody Latimer knocked down a Hail Mary pass with no time on the clock to give Indiana its first victory since Sept. 17, 2011 and coach Kevin Wilson’s second victory as the Hoosiers coach.

Indiana ‘s 24-17 victory over the Sycamores certainly wasn’t a statement victory, and left legitimate questions about how much better the Hoosiers actually got after last year’s 1-11 finish. However, IU coach Kevin Wilson said it showed mettle that the Hoosiers didn’t have a year ago.

“A year ago, the way we played, we would’ve found a way to lose that game,” Wilson said. “Today, with a young crowd, we found a way to have a reasonably solid start, a reasonably quality win, and we’re going forward.”

Sophomore quarterback Tre Roberson proved that all the work over the offseason toward becoming a better pocket passer had produced at least some form of dividend. He completed 26 of his 36 passes for 280 yards and a touchdown while also running for a score.

“I thought he did really well,” Wilson said. “I think he’s gonna have a really good year. I think he’s a lot better than a lot of people think that he is. We didn’t want to run him a bunch. We didn’t try to. We tried to keep him in the pocket. We worked on that. I think you saw that he can throw on target. He’s getting better, and I think he’ll do nothing but get better.”

The Hoosiers rushed for 171 yards on 47 carries behind a young offensive line that performed admirably and using a trio of tailbacks that all had strong outings. Sophomore D’Angelo Roberts led the group with 67 yards on 22 carries. Freshman Tevin Coleman rushed for 48 yards on seven carries and junior Stephen Houston had 33 yards and a touchdown run.

Wide receiver Shane Wynn led the Hoosiers with six receptions for 95 yards, including a 71-yard touchdown-reception.

““All week we were practicing tempo,” Wynn said. “We knew they’d be looking for their call when we got the call. All we did was hurry it up and we caught them off guard. … They weren’t even ready. Oh, man, my eyes got super big. I was super-happy, you know.”

The Hoosiers had some defensive miscues, including a blown play early in which they allowed Indiana State tailback Shakir Bell to rush for a 54-yard score virtually untouched. They also allowed a 23-yard touchdown pass from ISU quarterback Mike Perish to fullback Austen Wozniak on a critical 4th-and-1. ,However, they also registered four sacks and two turnovers, including a critical late interception by cornerback Brian Williams. Bell rushed for 192 yards, but had just 47 of those in the second half.

Even though it wasn’t very pretty at least we won. There were some positives, though.

I think Replogle and Black will be able to man the middle in the B1G.
Roberson is as good a quarterback IU has had in quite some time.
We have three running backs who can play at any given time and do well.
Bolser is as good as recieving tight end as there is in the Big Ten.
I’d like the changes in pace during the game.

But,
Our linebackers need work.
Our secondary isn’t very good.
Our offensive line isn’t very good either.
And we didn’t look like we wanted the game bery bad, which is necessary in the Big Ten for a young team.

Well, I was actually encourages to a degree with what I saw offensively, inexperience hampered the o-line, trey was sharp for the 1st 2.5 Quarters of the game, then the bottom fell out offensively. Defensively–ouch. The biggest reason I see that we have 1 of the(if not)the worst Defense in the country, is due to an intense lacking of speed & quickness, particularly in the 2nd & 3rd levels, absolutely zero pursuit to the football, plus the fact that I consistently saw players abandoning their responsiibility & being out of position. Any change of field action resulted in a FIELD day(literally)for Shakir Bell. A winis always..well, a win, but when considering that all of this was against Indiana State, realizing that they recently had like a 60 game losing streak, in D-2, coming off of a what, 2-10 season last year? It makes it all hard to stomach. I hate that I have to trigger “friendly fire”, criticizing my own, but I’m a devoted realist.

“A winis always..well, a win, but when considering that all of this was against Indiana State, realizing that they recently had like a 60 game losing streak, in D-2, coming off of a what, 2-10 season last year? It makes it all hard to stomach. I hate that I have to trigger “friendly fire”, criticizing my own, but I’m a devoted realist.”

6-5 in FCS. Miles is a very good coach and has turned it around there. They just keep getting better. Blew out Western Kentucky, lost to Penn State 41-7 last year.

Before yesterday, I suspected IU’s O-line was too light. Now I know it is. A Big Ten team should field an O-line that averages over 310 pounds. I know they’re young, but they should be bigger/heavier.

I don’t want to hear about quick feet, long arms, good conditioning and proper technique. We certainly need all those things, but when it comes to the O-line, size matters, and IU’s line is too light. It is particularly important in the fourth quarter when you need to be able to run the ball, burn clock and protect a lead.

Please, I know you don’t want to hear it, but think of the logic and consequences (which you yourself mentioned in a post last week) of a bigger is better ‘fat’ campaign. The outcome, devastating health problems …I really do fail to see the difference from ‘fattening them up’ and Chet’s point of ‘forcing athletes (wrestlers) to lose weight’.

Again, IMHO medical professionals should be the final authority on ‘weight’ for athletes.

Same as last year Wilson or whoever sends in play can’t get it done, or Trey isn’t bright enough to run the O, two or three plays at a time. A punting game they don’t have together yet? What have they been working on?

Don’t try to confuse me with the facts, They’re in Division 1.5, they record was 6-whatever last year, it’s INDIANA STATE! We pulled 1 out against the Sycamores, en I thought we were to the point where we could manhandle a team from the Missouri Valley Conference(right?). dissapointed to see that we aren’t, cuz’, as you know, in the big ten, perfromances such as this 1 will put us on the fast track to another 0-8 conference season. & BTW Chet, your stupid: I don’t wear underware, only boxers.

I don’t get the spread either but they don’t seem to lose much money out there. It’s important to remember the purpose of the betting line, though. It’s not necessarily always what they think the outcome will be as much as it is to put out a line that will get 50% of the bets placed on each team vs. the spread. They mostly care about the vig. Worst case scenario for them is all the money on one side and being wrong about the spread.

We’re getting the remnants of Ivan so motorcycling and biking aren’t gonna happen. It’s been strange this year. Everybody else seems to be in a drought and we’ve gotten afternoon showers almost every day all summer.

FWIW, ISU plays college football at the level formerly known as Division I-AA, now known as the Football Championship Subdivision. Division II may not be the proper term, but they are at the next tier down. UMass was at the same level in the past, but is now playing in the Football Bowl Subdivision, formerly known as 1-A, for the first time this year. This will be their first FBS home game after falling at UConn 37-0 in their debut at college football’s highest level.

Actually, yes he is. FCS is NOT DII, and never was. There is a massive gap in talent between FCS and DII. To pretend otherwise is ignorant at best, and disingenuous at worst. He backpedaled and said Div 1.5 after Chet rightly called him out on it.

Well, I stand corrected. Either way, it’s commenters that quickly go to insults that generally drive me away from these discussions. I think the general point was they are in the next tier below; I don’t think he’s alone (obviously) in not knowing the exact terminology. There are 120 +/- teams in FBS, then there’s the level in which ISU competes. Maybe if they actually had been D2, we could’ve wrapped it up before the last play.

Tsao, the logic of a bigger (i.e., heavier) O-line is that they perform better and their team wins more games. I’m not suggesting they all weigh 345 with 40% body fat, but 310 to 315 with an extra ten pounds of muscle will make a significant difference in their performance. For those O-line players that want to play in the NFL, that’s going to be a minimum standard. For those that don’t have the opportunity for an NFL career, they should, as young men in their early 20’s, be able to lose a lot of weight after their college career is over. Either way, it’s what they do after their careers are over that will determine their long-term health.

One way or the other, if they don’t lose weight after their playing careers are over, they will most likely suffer from obese-related health problems. Gaining an extra 15 to 20 pounds during a four year span, during their late teens or early 20’s, is not going to lead to their premature death. Whether they weigh 294 or 314, all these O-linemen will have to lose weight after they stop playing football. They will have to develop fitness routines that allow them to lose their playing weight and keep it off. If they don’t do that, then what they weighed when they played in college will be irrelevant.

If IU continues to have the lightest O-line in the Big Ten, I assure you that we will continue to finish at or near the bottom of the conference every year.

Podunker…you know what it is?…I read your comment and after I read the suggestions,”…to lose a lot of weight after their college career is over… [what they do] after their careers are over that will determine their long-term health.’after they are done playing”; and, “, if they don’t lose weight after their playing careers are over, they will most likely suffer from obese-related health problems” and (finally)”…these O-linemen will have to lose weight after they stop playing football. They will have to develop fitness routines that allow them to lose their playing weight and keep it off.”

These are exactly the points that makes me believe that they are forced (by their love for the game) into health behaviors that can have a very, very negative impact on their lives. I’d love to see the stats on former 300 lbs+ linemen for cardiac conditions, diabetes, blood pressure, etc… I know what you are saying. But adding the weight now and losing it later sounds exactly like the excuses I would give my MD about stopping smoking (cigarettes/ pipe)…yet I now live with all three or four of the conditions feared even though I stopped 20 years ago.

Why not just play with some body fat limits and keep everyone healthy? Again, I don’t think weight is the issue…the other factors (speed, agility, intelligence….etc) is.

Anyway, Podunker….hope you enjoyed the win. Lots to improve on but we played a lot better than at any time last year. We’ll see where we go from here…I’m cautiously hopeful (which does not mean I am expecting or predicting) for 5-7 wins.

Chet, Wisco…the entire FBS, FCS, etal issue is confusing. And, the couple of times someone tried to discuss or explain them here, confused me even further. There’s an easy way to get around it. We have XX number of games on our schedule…I’d like to think our goal is to win every one of them…whether last year’s B1G champion or the IFL-CIO runner-up.

I do not understand how the FBS/FCS/DII thing is confusing. You know who the best team in DII football has been the past few years? The University of Minnesota…Duluth. A college hockey power, sure, but a school that would get dominated by any football team we have talked about on here, including Indiana State. It does not take much effort to realize that very few, if any, FBS programs play DII schools. The last time any DI (FBS/FCS) played a non-DI program was 2007, when WKU played an NAIA school.

It’s not that it’s soooo confusing, it’s that you guys took so literally the reference to ISU being D2, when I’m pretty sure the point was they’re the next lowest level and that if we’re struggling against them, we’re in trouble. I get that we’re not going to play Taylor University next year. And before it happens, I have no idea what level they’re in, other than it’s glorified little league. I just jumped in to defend Chris because I hate when these convos go to insults so quickly. I stand corrected; I am an educated man, but apparently not as well versed in the college football hierarchy as I should be. For shame. I feel the general point remains and the rudeness was unnecessary, but thanks for the lesson. And, no, I didn’t know about UM-Duluth, and I doubt too many folks outside of Duluth do either.

Sure hope so, Clarion. I’ll be interested to see how that spread changes throughout the week and how we improve from Week 1 to 2. Weren’t they D2 last year? Just kidding!

The reference to DII was not good because it was not accurate. Making it a stupid comment to anyone who knows the difference. As Chet aptly corrected. Part of the fun on this blog is finding out info you did not know or not know correctly. Descriptive replies at times about incorrect statements are simply entertaining sharp elbows.
Chet’s comments about how Vegas markets their product is real and I suspect real bettors will be drawn to this carrot. But in the end I doubt it moves much.

No no,they are correct, making incorrect statements is, “stupid”, & obviously they understood the implications of the comments, that ISU is in a lower tier conference, my bad, carelessness. Laziness, more than anything really. The point is, as you stated Wisco, that we may be in big trouble if we can’tdo a better job against a team the caliber of ISU, & it’s no newsflash to say that we may be in trouble, but I just hoped to see more improvement from this team, but perhaps we will this week, or soon therafter.

Tsao, your position about player’s health and your concern for their health is admirable and inspiring (sincerely). In a perfect world, all college football coaches would adopt body fat monitoring and cardiovascular health screening, looking for the early signs of major health risks. But in the real world, players will continue to get bigger and bigger and bigger. And if IU wants to have a competitive football team, they’re going to need to keep pace, or in this case, get their players bigger, heavier and stronger.

No matter what, men will continue to pursue their dreams even with the knowledge that they may be cutting years off their life. Professional boxing, football, MMA, race car driving, equestrian (the most dangerous sport on earth), and etc. Society can work to make these activities safer, but we can never make them totally safe. That’s both the beauty and the tragedy of living in a free society. And I personally don’t ever want to live in a society that tries to eliminate behaviors that include risk.

Chet, the equestrian sports, especially those involving the jumpers, are by far the most dangerous and deadly sports on earth, both in terms of the raw number of severe injuries and deaths and per capita. If the same number of people got paralyzed and killed playing football or boxing, the U.S. would have banned both sports long ago.

There is instantaneous death due to the inherent danger in a sport as opposed to wear and tear to the body(heavy strain on the heart that enlarges the muscle, joint deterioration, brain injuries, ill-effects of chemicals/steroids, etc) that can contribute greatly to the shortening a lifespan, or, at minimum, severely reducing the quality of life as one ages.

I don’t think you easily reverse the effects of what the average high-level(beyond high school) football player has done to the body. I have a hard time believing that steroids aren’t being used extensively to contribute to performance and body mass. The long term effects of turning oneself into something as modified a perfectly genetically engineered giant strawberry in the produce section your local grocer seems a rather high price to pay for the few that achieve fame and fortune.

Come to think of it, I believe the current most dangerous physical activity in the world is walking along the sidewalks in a South Side of Chicago neighborhood.

‘No matter what, children will continue to pursue their dreams of walking out their front doors to go to school even with the knowledge that they may be getting their brains blown out at any second.’ Given the choice, I would presume most would take their chances with the horse jumping at the family ‘Winding River Ranch’ estate and stables.